Howard Lutnick: Tether’s Big Backer

Howard Lutnick's firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, is a prominent Wall Street bond broker and a member of an exclusive club: It's a primary dealer that gets to trade directly with the Federal Reserve. So when Lutnick — Tether's U.S. Treasuries dealer — said this year that Tether actually has the money it says is backing its huge USDT stablecoin, that put a final nail in the coffin of conspiracy theories claiming otherwise. Lutnick's other source of influence is being a supporter of crypto — well, he's specific: just bitcoin and stablecoins — in close orbit around President-elect Donald Trump, serving now as co-chair of Trump's transition team and a nominee to run the Commerce Department. It's not clear how responsible Lutnick was for Trump's turnaround on crypto (going from somewhat opposed during his first presidency to full embrace on the campaign trail this year), but if Lutnick whispered the “pro” argument in Trump’s ear, it couldn't have hurt. This profile is part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year's nominees, click here.